If you ca n’t levy a plant to keep your life you know the appeal of terrariums , which can sustain themselves for months on end without being watered . But a retiree in the UK says he sealed up his bottle garden in 1972 — and has n’t watered it since .
The Times reportson David Latimer , a Surrey mankind who recently call into the BBC Radio 4 ’s “ Gardeners ’ Question Time ” to narrate expert about his little experiment : A 10 - gallon glass bottle that he filled with soil , a single seedling , and a pint of water in 1960 . He open it up to give it another pint in 1972 , then exclude it up for good .
80 - yr - Old Grows A Thriving Garden In A Sealed Bottle Last Watered In 1972 ( 3 pic + video):http://t.co / n8E6FMiHv0pic.twitter.com / skekgY7Cyb
— Demilked ( @demilked)April 9 , 2014
In the years since , the dayflower inside has prosper into a thriving ecosystem that the BBC radio presenter described to him as an example of how plants are able to reprocess . “ Photosynthesis creates oxygen and also commit more moisture in the air , ” saysthe Daily Mail . “ The leaves it drops rot at the bottom of the bottleful , creating the carbon dioxide also needed for photosynthesis and food which it absorbs through its roots . ”
https://twitter.com/embed/status/453917971614674944
But Latimer ’s chronicle is n’t without skeptics . Could an ecosystem really survive that long ? pile of commenters have question how carbon dioxide is circulated within the bottle , while others suggest that its survival might be thanks to its cork plug , which is actually permeable and may have allowed an “ telephone exchange of gasses ” between the open aura and the introduce ecosystem .
So , biologists among us : Does this taradiddle reserve water ? [ The Times ]
look-alike : Timber Press , Kate Baldwin .
BiologyGardeningGardens
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